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If you're on the ASD spectrum (or suspect you might be).... have your reading tastes changed over time?

26 replies

ContessasGulagSpaDay · 28/09/2018 21:42

This just occured to me. I have quite a few traits and so did my mother/so does my sister - we also had a sibling with diagnosed ASD. I was a very awkward child, socially, and didn't really 'get' a lot of nuances of social interaction until I was in my 30s many are still unattained.

As a child and teenager, I loved science fiction and fantasy - massive Star Trek fan, Pratchett, anything 'other universe'-y. As I've got older, I haven't found myself absorbed to anywhere near the same extent by new examples of the genre, and the old books I used to read are enjoyed more for nostalgia than anything else. I don't think I could stand reading a Star Trek novel now, and I used to own at least 40 of them Blush. My tastes have changed a lot - it's mostly literal science books now, or works based on classic literature (which tbf I've always loved).

I was pondering the matter, and thought that maybe it's because when I was younger the real world and fantasy worlds were similarly mysterious and unintelligible to me; as I've aged, the real world has become more understandable and easier to navigate maybe 'cos I've learned some social skills. The real world is also, I've realised, bloody fascinating on its own terms - I don't need to escape to fictional intricacy any more when there's so much of it in real life.

Of course, this may be nothing to do with ASD but just a natural process of getting older. Seems like a decent place to start a discussion though Grin I welcome your thoughts on the matter!

OP posts:
ContessasGulagSpaDay · 28/09/2018 23:04

I'm in a minority here, I see!

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anzu66 · 28/09/2018 23:08

Definitely me too.

On ASD: the only one in the extended family with a formal ASD diagnosis is DS, but on reading up on it, it is really, really obvious that my whole family is on the spectrum, including me - and though I am never going to get a formal diagnosis I have finally learnt how to be kinder to myself and understand that I am not actually as hopeless at being a person as I believed for many years.

On reading; when I was younger I read simply everything I could lay my hands on. Often one or two books a day, even on school days.
I read fiction and non-fiction, simply everything. Science fiction and fantasy (Asimov, Heinlein and Ursula LeGuin were my favourites), unending numbers of detective stories (read every single Agatha Christie book, though the idea of reading even one of them now makes me shudder), action stories like stuff by Alistair MacLean and Desmond Bagley, but then there were also non-fiction books - irrespective of whether it was a history of Korean dynasties or an introduction to Freudian theory, or about transactional analysis, or a biography of someone, I read the lot.
The only thing I couldn't stomach was love stories, which just seemed trite and utterly dull.

And now...well, I don't read most fiction.
I try sometimes. Mostly I can't do it. Usually, not far in, I get either the feeling that it is formulaic - I KNOW what will come next and I get the feeling that life is short, and why should I waste it reading this? (I don't watch TV or movies either, on pretty much the same grounds).

Or, knowing more about things in general, there is some factual mistake (often huge), that puts me off. My younger self wouldn't have known it was wrong, and maybe if I had picked up on it, I wouldn't have been bothered (???)
As an example, I remember borrowing a detective story from the library about 15 years back. It was set in Chinatown in San Francisco, but about a quarter of the way into the book, the name of a "Chinese" shop is given in "Chinese characters" there in the middle of the English text. However, the author has actually given the name of a Korean business, in the Korean alphabet. I used to teach Chinese, and, I can read enough Korean letters to know Korean when I see it. That was it. Book closed, returned to the library, and never going to read anything by that author again.

Similarly, I actually tried to read a historical romance a while back. The author had the heroine gamboling around in a forest in a bright green dress - at a time when bright green dye had not yet been invented (and when it was invented a few decades after that, it poisoned the wearers of the clothing with the arsenic it contained) Again, book closed at that point and back to the library. A strong feeling of: why should I be wasting my life on this?

Apart from that type of thing, I don't know - is it age, or experience, or not needing it any more as I learnt what I needed to from it, or is it from having read so much earlier that it all just seems more of the same? In tragedy, the hero will die, in action stories the hero will win. If there is an enemy, he/it will usually be unnuanced and predictable. If this person in the narrative dies, or that person falls in love, why should I care?

And yes, now I mostly read non-fiction: books about the history of disease and plagues and how that has shaped the world today, or the history of human evolution, or commonly held misconceptions about dieting, or how trees communicate, or the history of the pigments used in painting. Much, much more fun.

Witchend · 28/09/2018 23:13

I would say a lot of people I know are avid readers will say their taste has changed over time. I know mine has.

I don't think it's connected to anything other than changing as you get older.

ContessasGulagSpaDay · 28/09/2018 23:14

I think we'd get along well anzu Grin I know just what you mean about it seeming formulaic too. Real life is much more interesting than anything fiction could offer, yet I devoured it as a child/teen. Maybe it is just maturity - we need a self-assessed NT person to come and clarify things Grin

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ContessasGulagSpaDay · 28/09/2018 23:15

Ah, hello there witchend - one vote for the 'normal aging' option then!

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ContessasGulagSpaDay · 28/09/2018 23:16

Maybe 'standard aging' would be a more appropriate phrase....

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TheThirdOfHerName · 28/09/2018 23:17

I have never sought assessment, but I have autistic traits. I have a parent and a child on the autistic spectrum.

As a child / teenager I used to read speculative fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian and post-apocalyptic stuff.

As an adult in my 40s, I still read a lot of speculative fiction. I still read sci-fi but mostly by female authors. Some dystopian / post-apocalyptic stuff, but I'm underwhelmed by all the samey YA stuff. Hardly any fantasy.

So I've stayed mostly within the same genre, but have become more fussy and enjoy the more grown-up / literary / 'intelligent' end of the scale.

catkind · 28/09/2018 23:22

Have some traits. Mine has changed a lot, mainly since having kids. I have very low tolerance for nastiness the more I have at stake in the world. Or seriousness as I don't think there are happy answers to serious questions about the world at the moment. But also have low tolerance for formulaic crap and sexism. So that leaves me rereading safe old favourites mainly. Occasionally new books from old favourite authors.
As only some self-noted traits I don't know if I'm with you or a vote for normal aging!

anzu66 · 28/09/2018 23:33

All that said, once in a blue moon I find some fiction I like. Ben Aaronovitch, for example.

Definitely, becoming a parent led to a reduced tolerance for nastiness in books.
And nowadays in detective stories, at least, that is definitely the default. Huge amounts of gratuitous violence and gore if you compare with what was the norm a few decades ago. The brutality of the real world is bad enough, why read yet more of it in fiction form?

TheThirdOfHerName · 28/09/2018 23:38

Having said that I mostly read sci-fi, I read all of Rivers of London back-to-back earlier this year.

Also loved the trilogy by Becky Chambers (A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet).

LauraMipsum · 28/09/2018 23:43

I'm autistic. I'll read anything, always have done. I can absorb words and meaning at light speed so as a child I went through books at a ridiculous rate. If only I could understand people and faces with the same acuity.

As a child I liked autobiographies / biographies most, followed by reassuringly repetitive books (Mills & Boon / Sweet Valley / Enid Blyton / Jennings etc etc), and the rest varied. I had an interest in Victorian novelists for a while (I now realise that this looked incredibly wanky in a thirteen year old), then religious books, mythology, Chaucer, all sorts of things. I did a literature degree.

I do still read some fiction but I prefer non fiction now. I still love autobiographies / biographies. I can't read or watch gratuitous violence for the same reasons anzu gave.

LauraMipsum · 28/09/2018 23:46

I also read and re-read as a source of comfort, almost like a stim. If I'm struggling with things I'll read my Harry Potter collection or one of the others (I collect old books) starting at the right one in the right order, even if that's not the one I fancy reading, and it's very calming. People who know me professionally would not think that after a hard day I sit and read Harry Potter, much less that I can recall to the exact word where I left off last time! I've never had to bend the corner of a page to be able to resume reading.

IWantMyHatBack · 29/09/2018 00:03

Autistic

Pratchett, etc. Obsessively as teen. I don't read much anymore but seek out fantasy lands on TV instead. LOTR, GoT, Buffy, etc.

IWantMyHatBack · 29/09/2018 00:04

Oh god. Harry Potter. How could I forget. Read them as they were released (was about 18) and then would go to the cinema on my own to watch.

Heideli · 29/09/2018 00:54

Autistic also, I used to read so many different books when I was younger non fiction ones based on my various interests at the time, I was obsessed with Harry Potter, I used to read survivival novels, fantasy ones, funny stories etc basically a really wide variety and I would read new books all the time. now I feel almost scared (not sure how else to describe it!) about reading new things so I basically only reread old books I used to like, like Harry Potter, Worst witch, princess diaries etc my reading tastes are basically stuck from when I was a teenager and I don’t read many new things anymore!

toffee1000 · 29/09/2018 03:56

ASD?? HARRY POTTER?? 😍😍😍

I like Harry Potter still. Ob-vi-ous-ly.
I used to like St Clare’s/Malory Towers, I don’t so much anymore. They’re all a bit samey really, and particularly with MT the girls are quite mean to anyone who’s different/cliquey.
I’ve tried to widen my tastes as I’ve become older.
One thing I never liked were teen books where the entire plot revolves around romance, like say 14-16 year old girls who were not in the popular crowd who had never been kissed type of thing. I had no interest in boys until I was 18, so I got very bored with those sorts of books. That’s why I like HP; romance does come into it but it’s not the entire driving force behind the series. I know teens have romantic interests and so on, but when the entire book revolves around “getting the boy” it’s just so dull!! I just couldn’t identify with those girls, they were all boy-mad. Now I’m older and am interested in the romantic side of life, that stuff would still bore me but only because I’m too grown up for it now Grin

pennycarbonara · 29/09/2018 04:17

I was quite obsessive about imprints and publishers, e.g. Puffin Classics, Penguin Classics, Penguin Modern Classics, and lists of greatest books. There were books I didn't notice in my teens classics reading phase, which were classics, because they didn't appear on these lists or had uncommon publishers. At top primary age I used to have the same repetitive conversations about reading classics with an extraordinarily patient English student who looked after me after school. I wish I could thank her now for dealing with this with such good humour; I can't remember her once seeming the slightest bit irritated.

I also read a lot of Sweet Valley High, despite being not girly in mannerisms or dress. I felt it was important to do a modicum of what you were 'supposed to do' - my ideas of 'supposed to' were driven by media rather than peers - and I was also seeking information about how to be a more conventional girl for times when I might need it. (Two classic masking strategies there.) I secretly thought others in my class who preferred Point Horror were remiss in not doing things properly by reading the Sweet Valley Highs as well.

pennycarbonara · 29/09/2018 04:26

The main way I have changed is that I always accepted automatically, from a very young age that people did things differently in the past, and I found it ridiculous that many modern readers didn't also understand this and got annoyed about depictions of past behaviours and attitudes. I have a great deal more insight into other readers now, why people feel that these works and by implication these attitudes being on pedestals matters in society, and I also experience emotional responses to things in history or fiction which used to have little more impact on me than reading statements like "the lamp is on the table".

vandrew4 · 29/09/2018 05:44

that's a very obvious example of taste changing as you mature. No idea what it would have to do with ASD?

ContessasGulagSpaDay · 29/09/2018 06:59

vandrew Part of my op is that I wasn't sure whether it was normal aging or changes due to me being more adapted to the world. As a child I seemed to be the only one who liked these sorts of books and I was also the socially awkward weirdo (as they called me), so the two got conflated in my head. I'm just interested in the opinions of others on whether there's a link, if that's ok!

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AGrinWithoutACat · 29/09/2018 07:28

Hmmm I sometimes wonder if I am on the spectrum, my DB def is, I have a similar reading pattern over life as pp.

I read from a very young age and had a high reading age, LOTR age about 10 was one book I remember and that was a re read. Reading anything I could lay my hands on and Dad has a large! collection. Mainly sci fi and fantasy - ran out of Dads books and into the library - a lot of Mills and Boon as a young teen, some horror, more Sci Fi/fantasy, discover Pratchatt, became (a little) obsessed. Could read 3 - 4 books a day but (out comes the violin) these were my friendship substitutes and I still won't part with my 'friends'.

Now I read graphic novels, a chunk of paranormal romance (comfort), cartoon strips (Calvin & Hobbs), poetry and books about past mythologies. If I read one book in a set I want to read the rest but if there is too much violence or sex it spoils it but I resent not completing the set - I still re read my favourites.

I don't watch TV unless it is light hearted (with happy endings) but enjoyed NCIS until they kept changing/killing main characters - might watch 'Upstart Crow' as it has been recommended to me

ContessasGulagSpaDay · 29/09/2018 07:45

AGrinWithoutACat I love Upstart Crow! I would describe it as cod Shakespearean Grin it respects the source material whilst also poking fun at it, and adds in a hefty dose of modern commentary (European single market/mass protests against immigrants, anyone?).

Another one with a very high reading age when relatively young here - it did mean I read a lot of unsuitable books though (and was completely flummoxed by them)!

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SoyDora · 29/09/2018 07:50

I think it’s very normal for an adults reading tastes to be different to a child/teenagers. I have no ASD traits and of course my reading tastes have changed over time. The things that gripped my attention as an adult/teen are of little interest to me now, except for nostalgia reasons.

SoyDora · 29/09/2018 07:50

I also had a very high reading age throughout school... I think it hit 16 (the highest it went) when I was around 7.

SoyDora · 29/09/2018 07:51

(I mean the highest the scale used by the school went)